Former PM's spokesman tells ‘Post’: Sharon knew Palestinians were planning violence, but wanted to show he wouldn’t compromise on J’lem.

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Future prime minister Ariel Sharon was told by his spokesman Ra’anan Gissin that
visiting the Temple Mount could be used by Palestinians as an excuse for
violence, Gissin said Tuesday on the 10th anniversary of Sharon’s controversial
visit.

Palestinians began throwing rocks immediately after Sharon left
the compound. The Palestinians called the uprising that began the “Al-Aksa
intifada,” even though an IDF sergeant critically wounded in a bomb attack the
day before Sharon’s visit is considered the first victim of the wave of
violence, and Palestinian officials have admitted that then- Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat had planned the intifada months before.

“It was a sensitive
time during the High Holy Days and at the end of Ramadan,” Gissin said.
“I told
him the situation was tense in the West Bank and that [Palestinian
general
Tawfik] Tirawi’s people were planning to do something on the Temple
Mount,
whether the trigger would be Sharon or something else. Sharon knew he
was
playing into their hands, but he went in a clear-headed manner to prove
that he
wouldn’t compromise on Jerusalem and that Israel would stand up for its
rights.”

The initiator of the wave of violence, Marwan Barghouti, later
told the Al-Hayat newspaper
that he had decided that Sharon’s visit would be the
most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada.

“The night
prior to Sharon’s visit, I participated in a panel on a local television
station
and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to the Aksa
Mosque in
the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram
al- Sharif
[the Temple Mount area] just so, and walk away peacefully,” Barghouti
said.

“I finished and went to al-Aksa in the morning. We tried to create
clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that
emerged with
others in the Aksa compound at the time,” he continued.

“After Sharon
left, I stayed for two hours with other people and discussed the manner
of
response and how it was possible to react in all the cities and not just
Jerusalem.”

Sharon visited the Temple Mount on the advice of his
strategic adviser at the time, David Spector, in order to boost his
effort to
remain Likud leader ahead of an expected challenge from then-former
prime
minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Highlighting the Jerusalem issue, which was
a
matter of consensus, helped Sharon unify the Right behind him and prove
his
leadership.

“The visit was the turning point in his fledgling career,”
Gissin said. “He was considered a caretaker party leader in the Likud at
the
time. He looked for something to posture him as a real leader, and
Jerusalem was
close to his heart.”

The Likud leader ascended the mountain with his son
Gilad and MKs Moshe Arens, Reuven Rivlin, and Yehoshua Matza. Sharon,
who owns
an apartment in Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter, later used keeping the
capital
united as a key issue in his campaign against then-prime minister Ehud
Barak.

“It was the definitive move to capture the premiership,” Gissin
said. “It emphasized his attachment to Jerusalem and helped him position
himself
as the leading candidate for prime minister. He also wanted to show that
we have
a right to be there, because Jews were afraid to go up there and police
were
saying that it wasn’t safe.”

Asked whether Sharon ever regretted
ascending the Mount, Gissin said, “No, he said it was the right time to
tell the
Palestinians that Jerusalem was not for sale.”

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